Stage is set for Astros' Hunter Brown to be robbed of All-Star Game start

Hunter Brown is in the middle of what appears to be a truly special season for the Houston Astros. Brown ranks among the leaders or is outright leading in most pitching categories and for some, he is one of the frontrunners for the AL Cy Young Award. However, if the first round of voting for the All-Star Game combined with the amount of competition in the American League is any indication, Brown could be getting set up for being robbed of an All-Star Game start.

On the surface, Brown looks like an ideal choice to start the All-Star Game for the AL. Brown's fWAR (2.9 - 4th), ERA (1.74 - 1st), K/9 (10.84 - 3rd), and FIP (2.68 - 4th) all rank in the top four in the American League right now and he has been the ace of one of the better teams in baseball during the first half of the season.

Unfortunately, bias against the Astros as a team as well as a few other really strong pitchers in the AL makes the likelihood he starts the ASG pretty small one would think.

Hunter Brown should be a frontrunner to start the All-Star Game, but factors outside his control could ruin his chances

For the uninitiated, the pitchers for the All-Star Game are determined not by fan vote like the position players are, but by a player vote combined with choices made by the commissioner's office to make sure each team has a representative at the game basically.

At first glance, you would think that this would help Brown's chances of starting as it takes the fans' sentiment against Houston out. However, the player vote isn't likely to favor Brown given that there are a number of players and coaches out there that still hold a grudge for the sign stealing scandal. If there are viable alternatives to Brown starting (especially veterans), you can bet they will get a long look before Brown's case is even truly considered.

The other complicating factor is that even in the event of a fair choice, Brown isn't a slam dunk. Max Fried, Garrett Crochet, and Tarik Skubal have all had insane seasons of their own in 2025. Fried plays for the Yankees and was a high profile free agent signing, Crochet was the biggest trade of the offseason and plays in another huge market in Boston, and Skubal is the reigning Cy Young winner. That is a loaded field of contenders no matter what your biases may be.

One hopes that Brown gets strong consideration to start the All-Star Game, but we can find some solace that keeping him out of the game altogether seems incredibly unlikely even with the league needing to shoehorn some guys in in the name of equal representation. If Brown were somehow snubbed completely, just throw the All-Star Game out as that would be true lunacy.

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